The efficacy of sand therapy on hyperactivity and attention deficit in children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of sand therapy on hyperactivity and attention deficit in children with ADHD in Tabriz city. This was a pretest-posttest controlled semi-experimental study. A convenience sample of 30 children with ADHD was recruited from psychotherapy centers of Tabriz, in 2018 and randomly allocated to the experimental (15) and the control groups (15). Subjects in the experimental group received sand therapy in six, 30-minutes sessions, and subjects in the control group received no treatment. Subjects in experiment and control groups were assessed with a parental form of Child Symptom Inventory (CSI-4) in pretest and posttest. The data were analyzed via the SPSS software (v. 16.0) and by conducting the multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results showed that there were significant differences between scores in pretest and post-test in the experimental group (p<0.001), attention deficit and hyperactive symptoms reduced after sand therapy in the experiment group. Sand therapy is recommended for correcting child behavior and cognitive problems in ADHD.